ISLAMABAD: Zarina Hassan sits in her terra cotta tiled porch in Islamabad with a canvas on her lap. On the floor next to her, in a neat sequence, lies red, blue and yellow paint. She says she always keeps them in that order, because it’s the only way she can tell which color to paint her roses.
A doctor from one of northwestern Pakistan’s most prestigious medical colleges in Peshawar, and with a master’s degree in molecular biology and pathology of viruses from Imperial College, London, Hassan lost her eyesight completely in 2015. Ten years earlier, in 2005, she was diagnosed with glaucoma, an eye condition that usually affects much older people.
Now, as the mother of three boys, Hassan said she continues to live her life as normally as possible, and painting canvases, even furniture, is a big part of that.
“It was challenging to start life (again) with no eyesight, but I started looking for things to help me live my life normally as I had to take care of my children as well,” Hassan told Arab News.
“I completely understand life will never be the same again for me, but I wanted to make a difference and turning to painting was my resolve to make myself active,” she said.
Inside, the walls of her home are filled with the intricate oil paintings of landscapes and flowers, all framed and lovingly displayed, some bursting with color that she has created but will never see.
Hassan said she usually works with primary colors, after arranging them in order.
“I mix them with white if I’m painting something of a lighter tone. Usually, I know which color to mix with the other,” she said, and then added with a smile. “I imagine the colors, and then I paint them.”
‘I imagine the colors:’ Blind Pakistani doctor creates a world of art
‘I imagine the colors:’ Blind Pakistani doctor creates a world of art
- Zarina Hasan, a doctor and graduate of Imperial College London, spends her free time with a canvas and a paintbrush
- She lost her eyesight completely to glaucoma in 2015
Tens of thousands flee northwest Pakistan over fears of military operation
- More than 70,000 people, mostly women and children, have fled remote Tirah region bordering Afghanistan
- Government says no military operation underway or planned in Tirah, a town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province
BARA, Pakistan: More than 70,000 people, mostly women and children, have fled a remote region in northwestern Pakistan bordering Afghanistan over uncertainty of a military operation against the Pakistani Taliban, residents and officials said Tuesday.
Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif has denied the claim by residents and provincial authorities. He said no military operation was underway or planned in Tirah, a town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Speaking at a news conference in Islamabad, he said harsh weather, rather than military action, was driving the migration. His comments came weeks after residents started fleeing Tirah over fears of a possible army operation.
The exodus began a month after mosque loudspeakers urged residents to leave Tirah by Jan. 23 to avoid potential fighting. Last August, Pakistan launched a military operation against Pakistani Taliban in the Bajau r district in the northwest, displacing hundreds of thousands of people.
Shafi Jan, a spokesman for the provincial government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, posted on X that he held the federal government responsible for the ordeal of the displaced people, saying authorities in Islamabad were retracting their earlier position about the military operation.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Suhail Afridi, whose party is led by imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan, has criticized the military and said his government will not allow troops to launch a full-scale operation in Tirah.
The military says it will continue intelligence-based operations against Pakistani Taliban, who are known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP. Though a separate group, it has been emboldened since the Afghan
Taliban returned to power in 2021. Authorities say many TTP leaders and fighters have found sanctuary in Afghanistan and that hundreds of them have crossed into Tirah, often using residents as human shields when militant hideouts are raided.
Caught in the middle are the residents of Tirah, who continued arriving in Bara.
So far, local authorities have registered roughly 10,000 families — about 70,000 people — from Tirah, which has a population of around 150,000, said Talha Rafiq Alam, a local government administrator overseeing the relief effort. He said the registration deadline, originally set for Jan. 23, has been extended to Feb. 5.
He said the displaced would be able to return once the law-and-order situation improves.
Among those arriving in Bara and nearby towns was 35-year-old Zar Badshah, who said he left with his wife and four children after the authorities ordered an evacuation. He said mortar shells had exploded in villages in recent weeks, killing a woman and wounding four children in his village. “Community elders told us to leave. They instructed us to evacuate to safer places,” he said.
At a government school in Bara, hundreds of displaced lined up outside registration centers, waiting to be enrolled to receive government assistance. Many complained the process was slow.
Narendra Singh, 27, said members of the minority Sikh community also fled Tirah after food shortages worsened, exacerbated by heavy snowfall and uncertain security.
“There was a severe shortage of food items in Tirah, and that forced us to leave,” he said.
Tirah gained national attention in September, after an explosion at a compound allegedly used to store bomb-making materials killed at least 24 people. Authorities said most of the dead were militants linked to the TTP, though local leaders disputed that account, saying civilians, including women and children, were among the dead.
